


in the here and now

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Series: lexi’s season 8 fics [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: 8x04 Spec, Angst, Emotional Conversations, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, MAJOR SPOILERS for 8x03, Mentioned Character Death, Minor Injuries, Oliver Queen POV, Post-Episode: s08e03 Leap of Faith, This is so hard to tag y'all, post 8x03
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-31
Updated: 2019-10-31
Packaged: 2021-01-15 11:37:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21252776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: Set immediately post-8x03.“Dad?”Oliver stares in utter disbelief at the trio who have appeared on the bunker platform along with him in a blinding flash of light. For a good couple of seconds, his brain just… stops functioning. He’s so astonished that he can’t think, he can’t breathe, he can’t feel anything but shock.





	in the here and now

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so im FUCKING ECSTATIC ABOUT THAT 8x03 ENDING. and i really wanted to write a post-8x03, 8x04 spec fic about it. yes, i KNOW this probably isn't how 8x04 will actually go. i'm fully aware of that. please don't write snarky comments about it.
> 
> this is for everybody in the fandom who is desperate for ANY content post-8x03 and is as impatient as me for 8x04. hope you enjoy xx

“Dad?”

Oliver stares in utter disbelief at the trio who have appeared on the bunker platform along with him in a blinding flash of light. For a good couple of seconds, his brain just… stops functioning. He’s so astonished that he can’t think, he can’t breathe, he can’t feel anything but shock.

When his mind does kick back into work, the archer focuses on the two people directly in front of him rather than the young man standing slightly off the side, looking distracted by… well, everything. The two of them appear wrecked, their faces streaked with tears. There’s no doubt in his mind who the man staring at him with wide eyes and a dropped jaw is; Oliver would recognize him anywhere, no matter his age. It’s William. His son. Looking around thirty years old, but - it’s definitely him.

The woman in front of him, with green eyes as round as plates and wavy blonde hair (it’s almost _scary_ how similar Oliver thinks she looks like his wife) is _covered_ in blood and grime, but has his old quiver full of green arrows strapped to her back. Her first word, a stuttered, gasped exclamation to name him, is what astounds him the most. This woman (she doesn’t look more than twenty years old, Oliver wonders for a fleeting moment if it’s possible she’s still a teenager) called him Dad.__

_ _He only has one daughter. She’s currently holed up safely with Felicity in the Bloomfield cabin, barely a couple of months old; his baby girl only started smiling and squealing with laughter a week or two before Oliver was forced to leave them. But if the man before him is William, two decades older somehow - time travel _has_ to be involved - that means… that means that..._ _

_ _“Mia?” Oliver chokes out._ _

_ _Mia gives the smallest discernible nod. Oliver is rendered speechless once again. This wonderful, beautiful, strong woman in front of him is who the baby he left at home with his wife will grow into?_ _

_ _He turns to William, who at this point has stumbled back and is bracing himself against the counter, looking as if he’s hyperventilating. “William?”_ _

_ _Oliver doesn’t recognize the second man, but John obviously thinks he does, because he steps forward and asks in confusion, “JJ?”_ _

_ _“Uh, Connor, actually. Hi, Dad,” the man, ‘Connor’, replies sheepishly as he rubs the back of his neck - confusing everybody even more, and making John look like he’s just been run around the world by a speedster._ _

_ _“You have another kid?” Rene asks John, astonished._ _

_ _“No!” John replies wildly._ _

_ _“I’m adopted,” Connor offers. “But you haven’t adopted me… yet. I don’t think?”_ _

_ _“What the hell is going on?” Dinah hisses, advancing towards the three newcomers. Quickly raising his arm to hold her back, Oliver shakes his head firmly, motioning for her not to approach._ _

_ _“I think that’s something we’d all like to know,” William replies, his voice high-pitched with half-panic, half-incredulity. “Sorry, what year is this?”_ _

_ _“It’s 2019,” Oliver responds, shaken._ _

_ _William stares at him and then says in a strained voice to his companions, “I think we’re in the past.”_ _

_ _“No, really?” Mia says sarcastically. She’s a mess. Oliver is alarmed that he didn’t see before how bad of a condition she’s in. She’s still crying and there’s a giant wound in her neck, slowly pulsing blood. But her tone is so similar to Felicity’s when she gets snarky that it throws Oliver for a loop all over again. “How’d you figure that one out?” She can’t seem to tear her eyes away from him. The archer would be weirded out if he didn’t know that it’s _his daughter_ staring at him._ _

_ _Rene shakes his head, aghast. “You three are from the future? How?”_ _

_ _“Time travel,” John gives him a short answer._ _

_ _“Yeah, we get that, Hoss, but _how_?”_ _

_ _Oliver glares at him to shut up. “What year are you from?” he asks the trio sharply._ _

_ _“2040,” Connor replies, his eyes flitting back and forth between everybody, on his side of the platform and theirs. He seems anxious, which the archer knows must be due to the uncertainty of how this is all happened. “We weren’t even all _together_. We were all separated but then there was -”_ _

_ _“- A bright white light -” William cuts in. “And we just - appeared here -”_ _

_ _“The same happened to me,” John says._ _

_ _“And me,” Oliver nods. His heart is jackhammering in his chest from nerves, because how the hell is he meant to act when he’s meeting his children from the future!?_ _

_ _“Whoa, wait, time out,” Rene interrupts. “So you’re all from the future, from twenty years in the future. You - okay, yeah, you look like William. That’s believable. _You_ called Oliver ‘Dad’ and you’ve got his quiver, and he somehow knows you, despite the fact none of us do.” He points at Mia. “Who are you?”_ _

_ _Mia looks back at him helplessly and after a tense beat, she actually turns to Oliver for help. Well, there’s no way they can keep her existence a secret now. “Her name’s Mia,” he says, a tremor in his voice. “She’s - she’s mine and Felicity’s daughter. She was born three months ago, our time.”_ _

_ _“You’re telling us that Felicity is out there living in a safehouse somewhere raising a _baby_?” Dinah shakes her head, refusing to believe it. “No. No way. She - unless you’re telling me that she was pregnant while all the Ninth Circle and Dante stuff was going down -”_ _

_ _“She was,” Oliver cuts her off._ _

_ _Dinah hits him in the arm. “Felicity was _pregnant_ and you didn’t tell us!?”_ _

_ _“They told me,” John raises a hand._ _

_ _“You told John!? And not us!?” Dinah scowls._ _

_ _“Now is not the time for this conversation, Dinah.” Oliver rubs a hand through his hair when he realizes, “Oh god, if you’ve come from 2040 but exist in 2019 as children, that does that mean there are two versions of you now in the present?”_ _

_ _If possible, William’s eyes widen even more, and he says frantically, “Okay, nobody move. Don’t touch one another. If time travel was involved, and it was unexpected for us all, that means we’ve all been affected by tachyon particles - and if there are _doubles_ of us in this time, our artron energy fields could be in total flux. We need to scan our signatures and make sure they’re stable, otherwise we could inadvertently cause an uncontrollable tachyon cross-reaction.”_ _

_ _“Is it possible you could repeat that in English?” Rene says._ _

_ _William shoots him a glower that is so like the ones that Felicity used to send at the recruit that Oliver feels like he’s entered the Twilight Zone or something. “We’re from different times, the balance of the universe might not like that, if space and time hates it, by being too close to each other we could create an explosion to wipe out the entire Western seaboard.”_ _

_ _Horror sinks in, and fear that something as minor as them simply touching could trigger that much destruction. Oliver finds himself shuffling backward away from Mia, William, and Connor, and sees that Connor is sliding away from John, who has taken another step forward without the archer noticing to get closer to him. _ _

_ _“Jesus Christ, he sounds just like Felicity,” Rene mutters, barely loud enough for Oliver to hear._ _

_ _He does. William does sound just like Felicity. His son is a genius, just like his wife. And Oliver is unspeakably proud._ _

_ _“Do you mind if I -?” William points down at Felicity’s chair in front of the monitors._ _

_ _It means the world to Oliver that he’s asking permission to sit there, especially as he knows his son - _oh god he’s not ever going to get over this, his son and daughter from the future are right in front of him_ \- is fully aware that it’s Felicity’s chair, and normally nobody else is allowed to sit in it. He gives a short nod, still hanging back as William takes a seat with Mia and Connor flanking him protectively. William loads up the monitors as if he knows the system back to front and to Oliver’s awe, begins typing away feverishly in an exact imitation of his step-mother, bringing up some strange STAR Labs patented systems that he’s never seen before._ _

_ _“Good, Mom did have the tachyon and artron radiation scanning programs installed before she left.” Oliver’s heart palpitates hearing William refer to Felicity as ‘Mom’. “I’m going to use the STAR Labs satellite spectrometer that’s calibrated for the Speed Force to check us all over.”_ _

_ _“How long is that going to take?” Connor asks tersely._ _

_ _“Three minutes? If I had my 2040 servers, it would only take ten seconds.” The last part is said rather pettily, much to Oliver’s amusement. He wheels around to face his sister. “Mia, you’re awfully quiet. Usually, you’d be making a snide comment about my technotalk right about now.”_ _

_ _Oliver turns to face his daughter, a lump in his throat. It’s only been - what, five minutes? Since they were all randomly transported and time-shifted into the bunker together, but he still hasn’t properly spoken to Mia. Perhaps it’s because simply looking at her takes his breath away. Shocked isn’t strong enough a word to describe how he feels, seeing her with her startling green eyes, blonde hair like her mother and sporting a quiver. She’s followed in his footsteps and become an archer. Not only an archer, but the next Green Arrow. It’s overwhelming to think about. It’s overwhelming to _see her_._ _

_ _Once he’s focused his attention back on Mia, though… Oliver shifts closer to her out of concern, seeing how she’s swaying. Her face has paled considerably and she looks like she’s about to collapse. As soon as she sees her father watching her, beginning to worriedly hover over her, it appears to become too much for her. She releases a guttural sob that punches him in the stomach, her knees buckling. Mia’s eyes roll into the back of her head and to his utter horror, she _crumples_._ _

_ _Oliver lunges forward to catch her as she falls, exactly at the same time Connor and William leap in to also try and stop her from hitting the floor too hard. He hears William swear under his breath as their hands touch, but there’s no spontaneous explosion, so the archer quickly figures out that they’re fine and aren’t going to destroy the world by being from different times and around each other. Mia slumps unconscious against Oliver’s chest, her head cradled beneath his chin, while Connor braces her waist and William holds her shoulders._ _

_ _“What’s wrong with her?” he demands, his voice coming out as a fierce, protective growl. “What _happened?_”_ _

_ _“She was mid-fight with my - with the leader of the Deathstroke gang, when we got flashed here,” Connor says hurriedly. Oliver narrows his eyes at the random switch in the middle of his sentence, but is too concerned about his daughter - she’s still bleeding, Jesus, why didn’t they concentrate on getting her medical help from the beginning? - who’s breathing is shallow and stuttered in his arms. “And obviously this whole situation is a massive shock.” Connor’s voice drops in volume, becoming morose. “And we - we just lost a team member. Mia was… there. I…” Tears fill his eyes. “I think she was holding her.”_ _

_ _Oh god. His daughter just had to hold a team member, a close friend, in her arms as she died… just like how Oliver held Tommy as he passed away. Oliver is horrified on behalf of her. Nobody should have to go through something like that and he _never_ wanted something like that for his child. He never wanted Mia to suffer like that._ _

_ _“She was.” William won’t meet any of their eyes. By examining him, Oliver can see that he’s close to breaking down crying as well. “I heard it over comms.” He angrily brushes his tears away. “Her neck needs to be seen to urgently. Mia’s already lost a lot of blood. Her carotid could have been damaged.”_ _

_ _Oliver nods, and shoots John a pointed look. John loudly announces to Rene and Dinah that he’s going to fill them in on everything they’ve missed, but it’s obvious that he’s trying to get them away to give Oliver and the kids the room. Although he’s reluctant to leave Mia when she’s unconscious and bleeding, the archer knows he has to set her down to go and get a medical kit. William twirls around Felicity’s chair so that Oliver can gently lower his daughter down into it, while Connor carefully unclips her quiver and makes sure that her head is supported. Once she’s curled up on the chair safely, Oliver exhales shakily and tenderly sweeps her blonde hair away from her face with trembling fingers. Mia looks so vulnerable when she’s passed out, her face peaceful and serene, so starkly different from how her expression had been tortured and stupified before._ _

_ _“She looks just like Mom, right?” Oliver glances up sharply at William, who offers him the weakest of smiles. “Yeah. I felt kinda stupid not realizing who she was before. It’s so obvious she’s yours and Mom’s once the idea is planted.”_ _

_ _Oliver startles. “Wait, what? You two didn’t…”_ _

_ _“We weren’t raised together. I didn’t even know Mia existed until about six months ago.” William shakes his head. “Not now. I’ll explain later.”_ _

_ _“Right. Med kit.”_ _

_ _As Oliver rushes down the steps to the medical bay to grab the equipment he might need, he’s overcome with sorrow at the thought of Mia and William both growing up separately, thinking that they were only children. Future Felicity must have had a good reason for keeping them apart - Felicity _always_ has a good reason for everything, and she wouldn’t have done it to be cruel, Oliver is certain of that - and he can’t imagine how hard it must have been for her… raising Mia alone in that cabin. Because that’s what must have happened. He dies fighting to save the multiverse from this Crisis approaching; Felicity ends up being forced to become a single parent to a three-month-old baby, with her fourteen-year-old stepson on the other side of the country being cared for by his grandparents._ _

_ _He’s distraught. Mia’s been staring at him with such intensity because she _never knew him_. This is the first time she’s properly meeting him. ‘Dad’ is the first word that she’s said to him. She has no real memories of him. She obviously knows who he is, and Oliver is sure Felicity would have told her and showed her pictures… but it’s devastating to realize that he is essentially completely absent from his daughter’s life because he’s killed during the Crisis._ _

_ _And William. God, William… Oliver can see the pain in his eyes whenever he looks at him. William lost him - is going to lose him - and after two decades of coming to terms that his father died saving the multiverse, but being the Green Arrow, which was the main reason why he could never have a normal life while living with him, William is seeing him again._ _

_ _His children must have so many questions for him. They must want and need so many answers that Oliver doesn’t know if he can give. What he _can_ give them, however, is time. He can give them hours upon hours of time to spend with them, to get to know his grown-up children and learn their quirks and personalities and habits. He can get to know them in a way that a father should know his kids. Because as terrible as it is to think about, Oliver had such a short period of time being William’s father, and it looks like he never got to be a present one in Mia’s life._ _

_ _Oliver is scrubbing his hands in the sink with antiseptic to get them ready for treating Mia’s wound when he realizes that her blood is all over his shirt and hands. The realization yanks at his chest, squeezing his lungs to the point where he’s wheezing. Bracing himself against the basin, he closes his eyes and desperately tries to fight against the oncoming panic attack, reminding himself repeatedly that he can’t break down now, his daughter needs him to help her, his daughter and son are waiting for him._ _

_ _Mia is stirring when he returns. William has his hand on her uninjured shoulder, half shielding her from Oliver’s view, and Connor is in a strange position kneeling in front of her, grasping both of her hands in a way that makes Oliver briefly wonder if there’s something between them that he hasn’t spotted yet. He hurries up the last couple of stairs to get to them faster, and William gives him a scrutinizing look before shuffling out of the way so that Mia is accessible to him._ _

_ _Seeing Mia in her mother’s chair makes Oliver freeze for a split second; Mia and Felicity look so alike that if he weren’t paying attention, he would probably mistake them for each other. Nothing makes him happier though than seeing a Smoak sitting in that chair again. He wishes Felicity were here to meet their baby girl all grown up. He knows she would have lost her shit, but then be just as overjoyed as he is now, at the thought of spending time with their children._ _

_ _“Hey,” Oliver greets Mia softly._ _

_ _She looks up at him with the expression of a lost, scared child. “I thought it was a dream,” she mumbles. “I guess not.”_ _

_ _She doesn’t sound happy. Nor does she sound disappointed. Oliver swallows and awkwardly shows her the antiseptic pads he’s brought up. “I’m going to clean your wound, if that’s okay.”_ _

_ _Sitting up straighter, she nods, bowing her head to try and hide her face with her hair. Connor helpfully leans across to brush it out of the way, and Mia tilts her neck so Oliver can access the wound to examine it. The four of them remain in silence as he pokes around. Mia doesn’t even flinch as he applies antiseptic; a swift glance her way tells Oliver that she, William and Connor are having a silent conversation with their eyes and facial expressions. That makes him even more emotional. He, Felicity and John used to be able to do exactly the same thing._ _

_ _“What did this?” he asks quietly._ _

_ _“A sword,” Mia replies shortly._ _

_ _“Who did this?”_ _

_ _“Leader of the Deathstroke gang.”_ _

_ _“Who is?” he raises an eyebrow._ _

_ _He quirks an eyebrow back at him. “None of your business.”_ _

_ _“Mia,” William sighs._ _

_ _“Hey, 2040 problem, and we’re not in 2040 anymore,” she points out. “Besides, this is nothing.” Her eyes darken. “I got a sword to the throat… Zoe got one through her heart.” The blackness in them fades to give away to tears. Her voice breaks as she continues, “She’s still there. She didn’t come back with us. Her body’s still there and she’s all alone and I -”_ _

_ _“I know.” William hugs her as well as he can from where he’s standing, letting her head rest against his front. He’s crying too now. Oliver feels lost. He so badly wants to comfort them, but doesn’t feel like it’s his place. “I know, Mia, I know.”_ _

_ _“What are we going to do?” she hiccups. “We can’t even recover her body, we can’t tell her dad… Rene’s not going to know. He won’t realize. It could take _weeks_ for him to find out, without us there.”_ _

_ _Oliver goes still once he realizes the identity of the team member they lost. Zoe, Rene’s daughter. She died in Mia’s arms. He tries to keep his composure as he continues cleaning the wound and then preps it to add butterfly strips - it’s thankfully shallower than he originally thought, and won’t need stitches. It would be better if it were glued, but they currently don’t have any medical-grade glue down in the bunker._ _

_ _“Let’s talk about this later,” Connor says, eyeing Oliver suspiciously. “In private.”_ _

_ _“Why are we here?” It’s only when nobody responds that Oliver realizes that she’s directed the question at him. Mia’s sea-green eyes are piercing when he meets them. “We were all brought together. Do you know why?”_ _

_ _“I think I do,” he admits._ _

_ _“Tell us,” Mia demands. He’s startled by the force of her voice. Yep… his daughter has definitely inherited Felicity’s Loud Voice, and both of their stubbornness and determination._ _

_ _“Once the others are back,” he says._ _

_ _She looks _pissed_. It’s kind of terrifying. Oliver wonders whether or not he looks that scary when he’s angry. “We deserve answers.”_ _

_ _“And you will get them,” he promises._ _

_ _“_Real_ answers,” she insists. “Not stupid, half-assed ones like parents usually give their kids.” Mia looks away bitterly. “For eighteen years the only answer I ever got from Mom whenever I asked why you had to leave was that you left to ‘protect us’. Because the world needed you to ‘be a hero’. Whatever the hell that means.” She changes the subject before Oliver can offer an apology or allow his guilt to overtake him, asking her brother, “Did you do the scan thingy? Are we safe?”_ _

_ _William peers over her shoulder at the monitor screens. “We seem to be good. Which leads to me to believe that we weren’t the ones to unexpectedly travel in time - we were brought here on purpose.” He glances over at Oliver pensively. “Am I on the right track?”_ _

_ _“Yes,” he replies. Oliver can’t help but smile. “You’re a genius.”_ _

_ _“Certified,” William smirks._ _

_ _“He has his own company and everything,” Connor snickers. “It’s a Smoak Tech rival.”_ _

_ _“Can’t imagine Felicity was too pleased about that,” Oliver tries to joke._ _

_ _“She was his primary investor, actually,” Mia says, wincing as he begins to apply the butterfly strips. “You’ve missed a lot.”_ _

_ _Oliver wilts. She’s right. He _has_ missed a lot. And he’ll continue to miss much more, if he dies in Crisis._ _

_ _“You will miss a lot,” Connor corrects. “This time travel thing… really messes with your tenses. This is our past, but your present. And our present is your future. But our past is also your future. And your future is our past.” He groans. “I’m getting a headache.”_ _

_ _“You’re definitely John’s kid,” escapes Oliver before he can stop it._ _

_ _Mia looks up at him through her lashes. “And Will and I are definitely yours?”_ _

_ _“Without a doubt,” he replies, no hesitation required. Finishing up with the butterfly strips, he places a bandage over it, satisfied with his handiwork. “William, you look just like me when I was younger and without even realizing it, have adopted a couple of Felicity’s tech-related mannerisms, and Mia, you…” His throat thickens again, and his voice is rough as he tells her, “You look _so much_ like your mom.”_ _

_ _He’s rewarded with his first smile from her. It’s small and tentative but genuine, and Mia bites her bottom lip - proving Oliver’s point, because that’s a Felicity thing. “Yeah, everybody says so. It… means more coming from you.” She pauses and then adds, “Everybody also says that I act exactly like you.”_ _

_ _Oliver passes her a wipe so she can clean her own face, where she has various scrapes and abrasions. Mia probably wouldn’t appreciate him fussing over her like she’s a baby. Despite the fact that in Bloomfield right now, she _is_ a baby. (This is trippy for him. Very, very trippy). “Is that a good thing?” He lifts his chin so he can pointedly look at the green quiver of arrows on the counter behind her. “Should I be calling you Green Arrow?”_ _

_ _A pink tinge appears on Mia’s pale cheeks. “We haven’t officially taken on codenames yet.”_ _

_ _Maybe not officially, but Oliver can see it clear as day. Peering up at William, he names him, “Overwatch,” and then over to Connor, “Spartan.” He taps his daughter’s knee. “Green Arrow.” _ _

_ _“She’s all ‘grr’ out in the field,” William says. “Honestly sometimes I expect to hear her say ‘you have failed this city’ in your growl.”_ _

_ _“She’s… determined. And confident,” Connor continues._ _

_ _“Polite ways of saying stubborn and hot-headed,” Mia rolls her eyes, but shoots her boys fond looks. The look she sends Connor is… particularly heated. Oliver narrows his eyes when Connor gives an equally smoky look back. Oh yeah… there’s definitely something there. “Yeah guys, I know. I need to be a better team player.” Her eyes grow empty and haunted. It’s heartbreaking to see her so dejected. “Maybe if I was, Zoe wouldn’t have died.”_ _

_ _“Hey.” Connor gently turns Mia’s head towards him, flicking her hair behind her ear. Oliver feels his eyebrows disappearing into his hairline. He’s so _soft_ with her, and Mia, who was all steel and stone before just… melts. “This is _not_ on you. You can’t blame yourself. We both know who’s to blame and they will pay for it.”_ _

_ _“What Connor said,” William agrees, his voice fiercer than before. “We’ll avenge her, Mia, I promise.”_ _

_ _Sadness swamps Oliver as he watches the three kids - because that’s what they are, they’re _his_ kids, even Connor he feels responsibility for now - gather around each other to offer support, squeezing hands and grasping shoulders, sharing heavy looks. “This isn’t the life I wanted for you,” he says, crestfallen. “You should have been able to live normal, safe lives.”_ _

_ _Mia shoots him a _cold_ gaze that knocks the oxygen out of his lungs. “Then maybe you shouldn’t have run off to play superhero and left your wife and children alone. You would have had a say in our lives then.” Her smile is bitter. “Mom always said that she was never the same after you left. She told me often that I was the only reason she felt like she had the strength to keep going. When you left, it was like all of the light in her life was leached out of her. You never came back, so she never got that light back. All she ever wanted was the chance to see you again. Three months ago in our time, she left to try and find that chance. And she left William, Connor… Zoe… and I in charge of protecting Star City.”_ _

_ _“It’s awful, Dad,” William adds. “It’s fallen into chaos. Divided into the Glades and the City, and we’re trying to unify the sectors. But there are powerful, dangerous people who don’t want that, and we have to stop them.”_ _

_ _His children are selfless heroes. “I’m proud of you,” he whispers._ _

_ _Mia stares at him. Oliver feels like her gaze is boring into his very soul. Her eyes glisten with unshed tears as she replies, her voice small, “I never thought I’d get the chance to hear you say that. Mom told me every day that you loved me and that you would be proud of me, but I didn’t think… I didn’t know if it was true.”_ _

_ _“Looks like we have company.” Connor gestures over at the garage entrance of the bunker, where John, Dinah, and Rene have all re-appeared, looking spooked and shaken by what they must have conversed about._ _

_ _Oliver exhales slowly, trying to gather his frayed thoughts. “We’ll talk more later,” he tells his children. “All of us, together, and then individually. I have a lot to explain and I’m guessing you have a lot of questions. And I want to know more about your lives and your mom.”_ _

_ _They nod. Resisting the urge to reach out and hug them - he doesn’t know if embraces would be well-received yet - Oliver packs up the med kit and wheels around to start heading towards his old team members. Before he can take a single step, however, he feels a tug on the back of his shirt._ _

_ _“Dad?”_ _

_ _His heart skips a beat. Swallowing, he turns to face his daughter. “Yes, Mia?”_ _

_ _“You really think there’s a purpose for us being brought here?” she asks._ _

_ _Oliver regards the trio carefully, taking in William and Connor’s worried and nervous faces, and Mia’s own confused one. He remembers the day the Monitor arrived at his and Felicity’s cabin to recruit him, the god-like being informing them seriously that he wasn’t there to hurt their daughter, that the _world needs her_. That’s the only reason they can be here, right? They’ve been brought back in time to help fight the approaching Crisis. But is that meant to happen? Will the timeline be affected, will Crisis be in flux, if Mia, William, and Connor are here in the present? Will they turn the tide of the battle and lead them to a victory where Oliver maybe, possibly, doesn’t _have_ to die? Is there hope that he might live after this, that time might shift and he’ll get to return home to Felicity and his children, after all?_ _

_ _“Yes,” he tells them. “A Crisis is coming. The entire multiverse is in danger of being wiped out of existence. And I think the fates have decided that the three of you are needed to help save it.”_ _

_ _Mia stands alongside her brother and Connor (boyfriend?). A serious expression on her face, but the hint of a determined glint in her eyes, she responds, “Well, best get to work then.”_ _

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed!! please leave kudos and a comment, i'd really appreciate it!!
> 
> twitter: @lexiblackbriar  
tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13


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